Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity and have many good things about it, IMHO protection of life and the preservation of the Lord Supper. But there are many wrong things with it as well IMHO such as purgatory. That’s OK, in Revelation 2,3 we can see that the Lord made criticisms of several churches, only one He threatened to remove, but did give them a chance to ‘repent and do the works you did at first’.
Those themes are in there
Jesus did talk about hell much more the heaven, There is not much about His teachings specifically to children, but He did say don’t stop children from coming to Him, and causing children to sin is a very bad thing to do. There is a difference between teaching children the truth of God through His Word, and scaring them with horror stories.
Either you take the OT God with the NT God (Jesus) or you don’t–you can’t claim only bits of the Bible and then say that the bits you prefer are all Divine Word and ignore the rest. You can pick and choose, however, if you look at the truth: that the bible was written by men for men and used poetry, symbolism, fable and legend to record cultural and social values for one group of people in one relatively small area, over several hundred years. Given that, it all makes a great deal more sense.
I don’t see how one can claim that God is Love and know anything about the OT God–who was a dick of the first order, with anger management issues. I think that Jesus had a loving message, but that he was not the son of God. He didn’t rise from the dead. Dead is dead. YMMV.
Honkin’ big sacrifice, I’d say, for someone who by His own nature could neither suffer nor die, to voluntarily become something that could - and spend the rest of Eternity remembering with perfect clarity what it’s like to be tortured to death.
Not to defend the Bible or Christians or anything, but Jesus wasn’t talking about public prayer as such in that passage. I doubt Jesus had anything against communal prayer in church or synagogue. What Jesus was warning against was praying conspicuously in public so as to “show off” your piety. Standing on street corners and shouting prayers was the example I was given when I was in my Catholic high school religion class.
Interesting. You agree with me, but do this yourself. OK. You say God is Love, but the OT God is NOT love or Love or even a Nice Guy.
I know we don’t agree at all on the bible, since I believe firmly my last statement about it–that it’s a document regarding the social mores of people of a certain time and place. I don’t read the Bible as divinely written. That said, I do believe in a god–who pretty much looks nothing like yours, given that my god love homosexuals, the poor, the oppressed, the well to do, the ruling class and women a whole lot more than most. In short, my god is love, not mindfuck games, torture on a cross and sanctimony.
Aside: do you realize how condescending it is to ask someone if they know Jesus? You do realize that you no more “know” Jesus than anyone else does? To tell a Catholic that they don’t know Jesus takes some balls… What you mean is that Catholics don’t relate to the stories re Jesus in the same way you do, and that Catholics have different traditions, as do many other christian religions.
The worst part must have been when he got his omniscience back, and realized how unnecessary and nonsensical it is to sacrifice Himself to Himself, to change rules He Himself made. I bet He slapped His forehead a good one then! “Doooo’h!”
Plus being God, He already remembered with perfect clarity ALL human suffering, before or since, already. I bet that was another slap to the Holy Forehead. And it couldn’t have been different for Him experiencing it first hand, otherwise that would imply knowledge He did not have, which is of course incompatible with omniscience.
Jesus did NOT talk more about Hell than about Heaven. He did talk more about Hades and Gehenna than anyone else in the NT, however. Paul occasionally mentions “death” and “destruction” to the unrepentant, and John in Revelation talks about Hades & the Lake of Fire, which I think is the same as Gehenna. However, even Hades & Gehenna are not quite as they are portrayed in popular culture or even pop Christendom.
No this is not what I mean, what I mean is:
Do you know Jesus ?
and exactly what I mean by that is:
Do you know Jesus ?
Not do you know traditions, do you know Catholicism, but:
Do you know Jesus ?
The person, the Lord. Do you know Him as you know your friend? Do you know Him like you know your earthly father? Do you know Him personally?
Well you can look at the calendar, but I admit it’s not exactly 2000 years. The Word is the only truth that mankind has access to, is it absolute truth and this point is not arguable with me (Hint: that line will not work with me)
So you have nothing. You claim a man rose from the dead. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Therefore it can be assumed it did not happen.
